Some interesting facts about PLUTO

 

Image: pixabay

Pluto is a planet that was discovered before we could see it with our eyes, only by the predictions of scientists. In 1915, while studying Neptune's orbit, scientists noticed another object interfering with its orbit. They even speculated that it could be a planet. 

Then, in 1930, an astronomer named Clyde confirmed the existence of another planet next to Neptune by examining some photographs taken by telescopes. Later, the planet was named "Pluto" by an 11-year-old girl named Venetia Burney Phair. It is the name of a Greek god. 

 

 

Pluto takes 153 hours to orbit itself once. A year on this planet takes 248 Earth years!

 

This planet orbits the sun in an elliptical path. Its orbit is much bigger than that of other planets. So it takes more time to go around the sun. Also, its orbit is inclined at 17°.

In 1977, the Hubble Space Telescope took a picture of Pluto.

Image: PICRYL

After this, many studies of Pluto continued. Since it is spherical in shape and revolves around the sun, scientists considered it to be a planet. Then, in January 2006, NASA launched a spacecraft called New Horizon to explore Pluto. The spacecraft should explore Pluto by 2020. Because the temperature in that area is so low, the spaceship freezes easily!

Image: wikimedia commons 

For this spacecraft to continue its journey, many planets similar to Pluto were discovered on Earth. They were also very small. Some of them were even smaller than our moon. If we declare all these as planets, there will be more than 115 planets in our solar system!

 

So in 2006, the IAU (International Astronomical Union) decided what characteristics a planet should have. 90 countries are members of this organization. According to the conclusion reached here, three conditions were imposed to declare an object in the solar system a planet. 

They are: 

1. That object must revolve around the sun.
2. The object must have enough gravity to keep itself in a spherical shape.
3. And the object must keep its orbit clear. That is, no other object orbiting the sun should interfere with its path. 

This third condition, Pluto fails to meet. In its orbit, many asteroids interfered. Therefore, Pluto was removed from the list of planets. 

 

Planets that do not fulfill this third condition but fulfill the other two conditions are called dwarf planets. Therefore, on August 24, 2006, Pluto was removed from the planet list and declared an asteroid.

 

Similarly, a total of five asteroids were discovered in this solar system! They are Ceres, Pluto, Heumea, Makemake, and Eris, respectively. 

Image: wikimedia commons

Of these, except for the dwarf planet Ceres, all others were called plutoids. 

 

Plutoids are the only asteroids that can be more distant than Neptune. But Ceres is located in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter.

 

Beyond Neptune, scientists discovered another, more meteorite-rich region called the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is also in that region. Here, it is said that there may be more than ten billion meteorites.

Image: wikimedia commons 

Now let's come to the story of that spaceship launched into space. Even after removing Pluto from the planet list, our scientists did not make any changes to the New Horizon spacecraft's journey. 

Launched in 2006, the spacecraft spent nine years in space and reached Pluto in 2015. And, as it approached Pluto, it took a photo of it and sent it back to Earth.

From that photo, scientists were surprised to calculate its diameter. Because its diameter is only 2376 km. This is less than the distance between Kashmir and Kanyakumari! And scientists confirmed that this planet is smaller than our moon. 

 

But this planet also has five moons!! Among these, Charon is the largest moon. Its diameter is 1212 km. The spacecraft also carried out several studies of Pluto.

 

On its surface, nitrogen, carbon monoxide, water, methane, etc., are in solid form. These contain mostly nitrogen and water as ice. Its surface temperature is -250 °C. It is also said that because of the heat inside its surface, the water may have flowed into the ocean in liquid form.

Image: wikimedia Commons 

Pluto travels 20 years ahead of Neptune during each orbit around the Sun.

 

Scientists say that its core is solid, not liquid like Earth. 

 

In a photo sent by New Horizon, scientists noticed a snail-like structure on Pluto's surface. Some even spread rumors that it might even be an alien. NASA later explained that they were an ice-like structure made up of pollutants from the planet.

 

This planet rotates in the opposite direction from the direction in which the Earth rotates itself. Because its central axis is tilted by 120°, it appears to be rolling around the sun!

 

Pluto, is still seen as a planet by some 90's kids today.😅😝